Standard Project Office

Standard PMO

A standard PMO will provide all of the services of a basic PMO, plus additional services that are determined to be of value to the organization. In the realm of supportive services, the standard PMO is likely to add a mentoring program, a system by which experienced project managers with advanced knowledge can assist less experienced project managers and project managers who are newer to the organization. This assistance both improves project outcomes and also guides project managers along their career path.

A standard PMO is also likely to provide controlling services and/or directive services. Which is developed first and more fully, depends on the organization's culture and requires an executive decision regarding whether the PMO should be directly responsible for project outcomes. If not, it will develop controlling services, including assessments, reviews, and audits. Directive services will therefore be limited to managing special projects.

A standard PMO of this type is likely to have a full-time staff of a few people or several people. Managing the mentoring program is a part-time job, and mentors, while reporting to the PMO in their capacity as mentors, may be assigned either  to the PMO or elsewhere in the organization for other work. If the organization is large, the review and audit staff may be either full-time or part-time staff members. For a small organization, reviewing and auditing may be part-time activities, or may be assigned on a rotating basis to project managers who are between projects. The size of the administrative, support, and secretarial staff may grow to a few people.

If the organization takes the path of developing a directive PMO, then the PMO will grow considerably, as all project managers and project management experts will report to the PMO, and it will maintain a large staff and provide a whole host of directive services. The core PMO staff will need to grow as well, as it will provide human resources (HR) functions, plus a host of services to coordinate facilities, equipment, suppliers, and customers for project work.

These estimates of staff sizes have been offered only as examples. The size of the organization served by the PMO and its culture will determine the PMOs workload, and the workload will determine the size of the staff needed to accomplish all functions and activities. For example, if a large, diverse organization launched a basic PMO with the primary mission of simply reporting project status, that activity might initially require a considerable staff. Prior to standardization of methods and tools, the staff would aggregate information from a variety of paper-based and software systems, and consolidate and compare information from different life cycles and methodologies. These are extremely time-consuming tasks. If this PMO deploys a standard methodology and project management tool, much of the reporting task would become automated. The PMO staff size might actually shrink as the PMO grew, or some of the original supporting staff could be assigned to more valuable functions, such as providing supportive and controlling services.

A standard PMO may wish to take on the challenge of becoming an advanced PMO that provides the best possible services to the projects within the organization.